Being overwhelmed is not a phenomena. It happens to everyone. Some admit it, others hide it. Some struggle to fix all their problems so others never discover they are overwhelmed. Some folks get so overwhelmed by their own difficulties they need space to deal with them, thereby leaving little room in their lives for the needs of others. It's okay. We all need reprieves, respites. In fact, my last post eludes to it.
So, I've been there. I've been so overwhelmed with circumstances at times I felt paralyzed. Too much. Too much. Too much.
Decisions are impossible. Procrastination becomes my remedy. I don't even take the first step to overcome it all. That doesn't work. Procrastination simply delays the inevitable; most problems do not go away by osmosis. They morph into dragons which eat my sleep and push panic buttons at every turn. When this occurs, it is perfectly reasonable to back off--but, in a methodical way.
Breathe. Ignore things that do not require absolute involvement. Take one thing at a time. One hour, one day at a time.
It's a good time to back off from the trials, tribulations and chaos in other people's lives. When overwhelmed with our own difficulties, we need to prioritize. We need to weigh essentials and non-essentials. Essentials make or break us. Non-essentials are like emails in our inbox that need to be deleted, ignored, or read then marked as "unread" till we're better able to deal with them.
Otherwise...
we can say and do things we regret.
We may offer banal advice or empty empathy. We (even when we are overwhelmed), still know when we offer something less than our best. We know when we are running on empty and have nothing to give worth giving. Because we know, we sow seeds of guilt rather than seeds of confidence in our heart-beds of hope, peace and tranquility.
The hardest part of feeling overwhelmed is the persuasive idea that nibbles at our self-worth. We tend to think no one cares. We compile a list of evidence that proves we are worthless and our problems without validity. Some of this proof is valid. Because of this, we convince ourselves of the fact. Overwhelming circumstances rob us of any possibility of visualizing light at the end of a tunnel. We don't even check to see if there is a rainbow after the storm. We know.
That's called resignation. We resign ourselves to life's muck and mire. We look down instead of up.It hurts. It hurts so much we no longer believe or want to believe it can be any better. It can be. But we don't have the energy to trust what God has proven to us over and over again. We are too overwhelmed to be hopeful or to trust anyone else who is hopeful.
Folks who are easily overwhelmed are deeply sensitive, overly caring, and extraordinarily full of mercy and grace. This is also why they tend to make others who are overwhelmed so hungry for their presence, so encouraged by their words, and so happy to know they are but an email away. Today I am a bit overwhelmed.
I won't say why. I just know that even though I am, there is someone else who feels just like me. And when we find one another we can help one another feel happy in the midst of it all. I know this because "the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." Psalm 138:8
Some folks are so overwhelmed by life's waves they fail to see when they've come to rest on the shores of peace. Perhaps we who pass them by might pray to be more aware of them...even when we've crawled inside a shell of our own. selahV
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